1In the United States, educational attainment has risen over time (see https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/educational-attainment/cps-historical-time-series.html, accessed 17 July 2020).

2For a detailed discussion on other aspects of education-related debt see National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. 2019. Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities 2018, Education-Related Debt. NSF 19-301. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf20301/report.

3For more data on the primary sources of financial support of doctorate recipients by field, please see related figure 16 in this report and detailed table 35 at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf21308/.

4Figure 29 presents the institutional yield ratio, which adjust the number of S&E doctorate recipients by the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in all fields by different types of institutions 8 years earlier, given that 8 years is the median time in S&E fields to the doctoral degree since the bachelor’s degree. Time to the doctoral degree from the bachelor’s degree varies within S&E fields; however, explorations of the data with 7- and 9-year lags produced similar results.

5For data on the increase of Black or African American undergraduate students over time, see National Science Board, National Science Foundation. 2019. Higher Education in Science and Engineering, table S2-7 . Science and Engineering Indicators 2020. NSB-2019-7. Alexandria, VA. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20197/. Or National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. 2019. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2019, table 5-3. NSF 19-304. Alexandria, VA: National Science Foundation. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf19304/.

6For detailed data on underrepresented minorities see National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. 2019. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2019, table 5-3. NSF 19-304. Alexandria, VA: National Science Foundation.